May 092012
I’ve been searching the Internet for the opening to the old Canadian syndicated video show of my high school years, Rock World, for as long as I’ve had access to surfing the Web. Finally, I have found it. This one goes out to the Class of ’81, especially my bandmates and close personal friends, Townsmen andyr, chickenfrank, and sethro. Hold onto your britches when this clip reaches the 45-second mark!
SUPERCHARGE!!!!!
We weren’t dreaming, man.
It’s so clear now: you guys copped your whole stage persona from Supercharge.
Those Supercharge guys are totally not fucking around. Just look at their effect on this German TV audience:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkRENB5o80g&feature=relmfu
Based on those 2 seconds of the Rock World intro we were huge Supercharge fans. There is a point in one of our old songs that may have been written for the purpose of initiating the Supercharge formation.
Ha! I watched that just before you posted it here…I had to know more.
The onscreen text at the beginning of this one describes them as a “comedy/dance” act…so, I guess that means it was… intentional?
http://youtu.be/ao9lWNwH4VU
I think I liked them better before I heard what they really sounded like. From the “Rock World” visual, I would have expected them to be more…uh, rock. The singer in the overalls and beard looked like John Candy doing a bit on SCTV.
That may be the greatest audio-free two seconds in the history of televised music!
You gotta find episodes of this show!
So much going on here! From the old NBC dancing “N” logo all the way through. This clip blows me away. But does Ben Sidran qualify as rock?
There is a whole episode @ that site, broken into 7 eight and a half minute (roughly) sections! Here: http://www.fuzzymemories.tv/#videoclip-3649
I’ve never heard of this show. I don’t recall seeing Rock World on any Canadian or Detroit syndication channels? Does anyone know what Canadian network produced the show? It would have to be a station with a big budget to get all these acts.
Well, now. I’ve never heard of Rock World and I was watching the rock and roll TV shows fairly steadily in the early 1980s. Then again I’ve never heard of Supercharge either. I’m sure I would have remembered them had I seen them.
Wow, this is terra incognita for me. I take it that they gathered clips from all over, ‘cuz I thought I saw the Musikladen logo in the background. Great show theme song.
I’ll tell you what else, I got all misty eyed during the commercial for Brim coffee.
And the Mighty MET! I remember being about twelve and whenever in a store with electronics setting all the radios and stereos to 95.5. I still listen to XRT on-line a couple hours/week.
aloha
LD
Interesting how few people remember Rock World. Maybe it didn’t play in many markets. We used to get it in Philadelphia. The clips were from all over the place – they didn’t have their own distinct performances, if memory serves. Often you’d get to see a promo video, like Costello’s “Pump it Up” video – on the white background. In fact, just about every week the highlight for me was whatever New Wave band’s white background promo video they’d show.
I don’t recall Rock World ever being simulcast on any of the Philadelphia stations, as this clip shows it being available in Chicago.
I don’t remember Rock World being broadcast in the Boston area.
As for that Debbie Harry jeans commercial, it ranks right up (down?) there w/that Lou Reed scooter commerical:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkXxFCu7kPI
Is that the worst guitar solo of all time?
No, the worst guitar solo of all time is in “25 or 6 to 4” — which is coincidentally also the worst song title of all time.
I still love the “white background” videos the best!
Never saw this in the MA. suburbs, as far as I can remember. If the show posted on the Fuzzy Memories site is indicative, Rock World could be pretty bland and un-rocking. The guests on the posted episode: Hilly Michaels (New Wave gimp), Billy Squire, April Wine, Little River Band (2 songs…which is 2 songs too many in my book!), Moon Martin (not bad for a guy who looked like that…I believe Mr. Chicken and I saw him open for Rockpile), Steve Forbert (2 songs from one of the New Dylans), D.L. Byron (Who?) and finally, a still-ambulatory Teddy Pendergrass, performing a panty-soaking rendition of “Do Me” live in concert. They pretty much blew their wad with the opening credit sequence.
Yeah, I don’t recall seeing that show in MA, but so many of those late night 1/2 video, 1/2 live ROCK programs all had the same look to them. How could they not?
Right! Moon Martin opened for Rockpile. He was kind of a grown-up looking Sherman from The Bullwinkle show.
Apart from Moon & Teddy, I had fonder memories of the period commercials included in the post than I had of any of the music.
Yes, the live action version, as played by Rick Moranis.
I do recall MV3, though. The videos and the dancing weren’t as interesting as the performances. That show was my first exposure to X, The Blasters and The Bangles (or as they were called then The Bangs).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOYI_A8dUAs
I’ve never seen MV3, either, but I didn’t have cable in the 80s, and really only saw MTV at other people’s pIaces. Apart from that show Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones hosted, I thought that network was Satan back then…still do. My primary exposure to music TV was late 70s and non-MTV 80s network shows, like Rock World…but not Rock World itself. I did somehow luck out into being able to tune into USA’s Night Flight while I was recuperating from an operation, staying at a place my parents were renting during a winter in Cape Cod. They didn’t have cable, but we somehow got the USA network. Night Flight had some great, comparatively oddball, programming on it in those early 80s years.
That’s a really cool Bangs clip. I was a fan since hearing the EP they put out under that name in ’82, but never saw them perform until they added the “le” and switched bass players. After “All Over The Place”, I didn’t like the production style (or the glammed-up, big hair 80s look) they went with subsequent to those initial releases, so I stopped paying attention until their postmillennial reunion. They really had that harmony singing down from the start, which was a rarity for new bands at that time.
All Over The Place is a gem. You are spot on about the production on Different Light and Everything. The songs and covers were executed well, but the glossy production date the albums. It was huge mistake to release Walk Like An Egyptian. It might have made them huge, but it ruined their credibility.
Their new album has a competent cover of “Open My Eyes”
Yeah, I like the way they sound doing 60s covers, like “Hazy Shade of Winter”..and I usually only enjoy covers that have vastly different arrangements from their source material. I guess the singing carries it for me. I thought that latest album wasn’t bad the few times I’ve listened to it. Nothing really surprising, but those harmonies are always nice and the production isn’t obtrusive.